Expanded Field House Will Feature Parent-and-Child Restrooms and Green Roof
The Battery Conservancy, in partnership with the City’s Department of Parks and Recreation, is planning a new Field House for the 25-acre historic park at Manhattan’s southern tip. Approximately $3.2 million of the $6.8-million project will be funded by the City, with the remainder raised by the Battery Conservancy, the nonprofit organization that has been working to revitalize and rebuild the park since 1994.
Slated for completion in 2029, the project will rehabilitate and expand an existing structure to upgrade office space used by the Parks Dept. and Conservancy personnel, while also creating family friendly restroom facilities with child-sized fixtures, along with a ticket window and storage facilities for the nearby SeaGlass Carousel. Sustainability and resilience features will include a “sedum roof,” covered with living panels of plants designed to capture rainwater, while insulating the building’s interior.
To design the project, the Conservancy has selected two Lower Manhattan firms: WXY architects (for the building) and Starr Whitehouse landscape architects (for its outdoor surroundings). WXY’s prior work in the Battery includes the SeaGlass Carousel and the spiral Bosque Fountain, as well as the rehabilitation and enlargement of the public washrooms near the bike path on Battery Place. Starr Whitehouse previously designed the acclaimed Playscape, and for this project has created concrete paving that will match the concentric oval pattern used for the play areas in that facility, while also devising a plan to ensure that the large, old tree closest to the Field House is left undisturbed by reconstruction.
The new Field House will enclose the existing limestone-faced masonry building within an elliptical facade that uses a screen wall to harmonize the new structure visually with the spiral form of the SeaGlass Carousel, while also concealing from public view mechanical equipment that will be installed on the roof.
Does anyone know what will happen to the adjacent restaurant/event space formerly known as Battery Gardens now The View At The Battery?